Sat 1st June

CLOSED EVENT

17th July Wednesday Club. The Flag and Whistle

CLOSED EVENT

Toddington Station is home to the Locomotive Departments and the North Gloucestershire Narrow Gauge Railway.

Memorabilia Displays.  The Restoration & Archiving Trust operates three small displays of artefacts at Toddington Station. One is located in a former GWR Collett Brake Coach dating from 1935, and houses a display of memorabilia and early scenes of the railway. There is a small toy museum in the old Honeybourne Signal box and another collection in the cabin on Toddington Platform 2.

Demonstration Signal box. Make sure you visit the mini signal box on the far side of the car park between the locomotive yard viewing area and the narrow-gauge Railway at Toddington and try your hand at being a signalman.

Yard Viewing Area. Visit our loco yard viewing area at the south end of the Toddington station complex. A gated access track near the south-west corner of the car park leads you from the car park, past the locomotive depot buildings and round to the yard area south of the depot. Bring your camera to take a shot or two of the locomotives in the yard.

Narrow Gauge Railway. The North Gloucestershire Railway Company operates the Toddington Narrow Gauge Railway which is co-located with the GWR, adjacent to Toddington Station. The 2foot narrow-gauge line runs services on selected dates during the GWR operating season.

Guided Tours of the Loco sheds. Guided tours (organised by the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Trust) are available on Tuesdays and Sundays at 12.00, 13.30 and 15.05 – terms and conditions apply. Meet at the GWRT Information Office opposite the Toddington station building. There is no admission charge but we do seek donations (suggested minimum £2 per person) via a bucket collection.

Please note the locomotive shed is a working environment and maybe subject to sudden loud noises and vehicles moving. We therefore ask that you remain with your guide at all times whilst on the tour. Also, we request you wear flat, closed toe shoes.

Meet at the toy shop 1000 for 1030 depart. Full tanks please. Our route out will take us through Dry Sandford, Cumnor, Eynsham, Charlbury, Stow on the Wold, Ford, and on to the Flag and Whistle.

After our visit (Lunch) our return will take us through Winchcombe, Gutting Power, Northleach, Colin St Aldyns, Lechlade on Thames, Faringdon, Kingston Bagpuize, and on to the toy shop. Total milage 96 miles approx.

Stow, Chipping Norton, Woodstock, Eynsham, Standlake before ending our ride at Aston Pottery.

Aston Pottery has a lovely cafe and shop attached well worth a browse for local pottery presents if you feel brave enough not to break that is. They also do amazing quiche.
Ladies don’t forget to support the ride. Be nice to see as many of you as possible along on our first 2024 ride.

Pam

21st August Wednesday Club. The Fovant Badges

CLOSED EVENT

The Fovant Badges Society is a voluntary organisation which has the objective of maintaining the regimental badges that were carved into the chalk downs above the village of Fovant by the soldiers of those regiments. The Society is determined that the badges shall remain an historic, fitting and truly visible memorial to the soldiers who passed through Fovant and its neighbouring villages on their way to the Great War, many never to return.

When the 1914-1918 war broke out, there was a need to find accommodation for the New Army. In many areas, training and transit camps were established for troops leaving for, and returning from, the battlefields in northern France. One of these areas was the village of Fovant, in Wiltshire and its neighbours Compton Chamberlayne and Sutton Mandeville. The villages and the fields in the shadow of the chalk downs became a military camp, complete with barracks, a hospital, parade areas, shooting practice ranges, a camp cinema and YMCA huts. A military railway was constructed to serve the camp, branching off the main line railway from London to the southwest.

Thousands of men from all parts of Britain and overseas lived for a while in the area, passed on to the Western Front and returned from it. Many never returned but gave their lives on the battlefields in France. Others died of their wounds in the hospital or from disease. Rows of silent War Graves in Fovant and other nearby churchyards are testimony to their presence. In remembrance of their colleagues, many of the regiments carved into the hillside replicas of their cap badges. Many of these no longer survive, but by the end of WW1 there were some twenty discernible badges.

Local workers from Fovant and the surrounding villages, supported by Regimental Associations maintained the Badges after WWI. During WWII, the badges became overgrown in order to disguise landmarks, which might assist enemy aircraft. Weather and time, as well as the effects of grazing cattle, caused decay. After the end of WWII, the Fovant Home Guard platoons formed themselves into an Old Comrades Association and undertook the task of restoration. It was in the period of 1948/51 that the two Wiltshire regimental badges were cut and in 1970 the Royal Signals badge was added.

In 1961, the Old Comrades Association was reformed as ‘The Fovant Badges Society’ with redefined, more positive objectives related to the maintenance and preservation of the Badges and the holding of the annual Drumhead Service.  The Society became a charitable organisation and in 1994 adopted a new constitution, which governs its operation and objectives; these are the preservation and maintenance of the Regimental Crests cut on the chalk downs and the education of the public.

Meet at the Dealership 1000 for a 1030 depart.  The ride will take us through Wantage, Hungerford, a comfort break at Choppers Café, Pewsey, Larkhill, Wilton past the Fovant Badges to our lunch stop at The Stalls Café.  After lunch we will stop at the cap Badges. (They are not doing talks at the present time)> The return ride will take us through Wilton, around Salisbury, The Wallops with a comfort break at the Apache café, through Andover and finishing at Burger King Newbury. Total mileage 120 miles approx.

Stow, Chipping Norton, Woodstock, Eynsham, Standlake before ending our ride at Aston Pottery.

Aston Pottery has a lovely cafe and shop attached well worth a browse for local pottery presents if you feel brave enough not to break that is. They also do amazing quiche.
Ladies don’t forget to support the ride. Be nice to see as many of you as possible along on our first 2024 ride.

Pam

18th September Wednesday Club. Caen Hill Locks Devises

CLOSED EVENT

The Kennet & Avon Canal has awesome examples of canal engineering. The 16 locks that form the steepest part of the flight at Caen Hill are not only a scheduled ancient monument, they are an Olympic sized challenge every boater must do.

This ‘wonder of the waterway’ is literally a rite of passage (Or should that be a flight of passage?).

Caen Hill (pronounced ‘cane’ by the way), is one of the longest continuous flight of locks in the country – a total of 29 locks with a rise of 237 feet over 2 miles with a 1 in 44 gradient for anyone who’s counting!

But you don’t have to be a boater to appreciate this beautiful waterway. Visit our Welcome boat, The Admiral, for activity sheets, local walks and information and stories about the locks before taking a stroll over to our newly planted, Diamond Jubilee Wood. To help you explore, follow our Jubilee Woodland Discovery Trail.

Meet at the toy shop 1000 for 1030 depart. Full tanks please. Our outward route will take us through Frilford, Wantage, Great Shefford, Baydon, with a comfort stop at Chiseldon, Wroughton, Avebury, Clane, Rowed and on to the locks. After our lunch we will return via Rowde, around Devizes, Alton Priors, Pewsey, Burbage, Hungerford, Kintbury, and on to Newbury and finishing at Burger king Newbury. Total milage 100 miles approx.